Getting your Trinity Audio player ready...

After making progress last year, scores generally fell across the board in Albert Lea Area Schools following the release of testing results related to the Minnesota Comprehensive Assessment tests in math, reading and science in 2023. The results were released by the Minnesota Department of Education Thursday.

The MCAs were given to students in third through 11th grade and focused on math, reading and science.

According to results, the percentile of students within the entire district meeting math proficiency dropped from 36.6% last year to 35.2% this year. In reading, students meeting or exceeding expectations dropped by half a percent from 40.4% to 39.9%. However, nowhere was the drop more significant than in science, where 31.1% of students met or exceeded standards. By comparison, 35.4% of students taking a science assessment met or exceeded standards last year.

Ron Wagner, superintendent of the district, said the district would look at the data and put strategies in place.

“We know there are opportunities for each student, and we’re putting systems and structures in place to support our teachers to meet the needs of each student,” he said.

At the same time, he admitted the district wasn’t there quite yet.

“As we are disappointed, we also look at opportunities as we think of each child,” he said. “Moving forward we will continue to strengthen, each and every day, for our students.”

He also stressed a district focus to meet students where they were and develop a plan to accelerate their learning in order to meet and exceed standards.

“We shouldn’t be surprised,” said Tonya Franks, executive director of academics and accountability. “Our teachers are collecting benchmarks at all times on our students throughout the year.”

She also emphasized that the district looked at students’ individual growth.

At Hawthorne Elementary School, almost 36% of students met or exceeded state standards in math, which was down from last year’s 39.2%. Numbers were also down in reading, where 33.5% of those taking an assessment met or exceeded standards. By comparison, 39.2% met or exceeded standards in 2022.The drop was more significant in science, with 30.2% of students meeting or exceeding standards. Last year, 41.3% of students taking the assessment met or exceeded standards.

At Halverson Elementary School last year, 57.4% of students met or exceeded standards in math. This year, 40.1% achieved those standards. In reading, 34.3% of students met or exceeded standards in 2023, an almost 10% decrease from last year’s 44.1%. In science, 54.3% of students met or achieved MCA standards. Last year, 75.7% of students taking the science assessment met or exceeded expectations.

Results were also down at Lakeview Elementary School, where 53.8% of students met or exceeded expectations in math, a drop-off from the 60.7% who met or exceeded expectations last year. In reading, 46.2% of students met or exceeded the standard. By comparison, half of students taking the assessment last year met or exceeded expectations. In science, 32.3% of students met or exceeded MCA standards. Last year, 48.3% of students reached the standard.

And at Sibley, 43.4% of students met or exceeded expectations in math, a 4% drop from last year’s 47%. In science, 37.9% of students being assessed met or exceeded MCA standards. By comparison, 41.8% met or exceeded expectations last year.

There was good news though, as reading scores improved from 41.8% least year to 47.8% in 2023.

At Southwest Middle School, 26.1% of students taking a math assessment met or exceeded standards, a drop from last year’s 26.9%. In reading, 37.1% of students met or exceeded MCA standards, a 4% decrease from last year’s 41.1%.

Students did not take a science assessment.

Improved scores were the trend at Albert Lea High School, as 29.7% of students who took a math assessment met or exceeded math achievement rates. That’s an improvement from last year’s 21.6%. In reading, 41.5% of students taking the test met or exceeded reading achievement rates. Last year, 32.7% of students opting to be assessed met the standard. In science, 26.6% of students who elected to take the test met or exceeded the standard. Last year, 25.9% of students being assessed met or achieved expectations.

No testing data was available for the Area Learning Center.

Franks noted the lower scores were a composite of a student’s class/cohort, and didn’t necessarily reflect individual student growth.

“The students that take the MCA or participate in the MCA, that is a composite score, an aggregate score or percentage of students that met or exceeded the standards,” Wagner said. “When we look at growth, we know a student may be categorized as ‘Not proficient yet,’ but we know that the student made high growth.”

He noted it took two years of high growth to get a student to be proficient, and said it was important to monitor student growth over time as they progressed.

“Our strategy will go about the measurement of each student and where they are and what is the plan to accelerate their learning moving forward, and that comes through our district goal of Multi Tiered Systems of Support,” he said, noting the district would focus on Tier 1, or core instruction, and what happened daily within the classroom.

He also admitted there would be students who needed additional support in things such as fluency or phonemic awareness.

“That is our obligation, to provide those supports, monitor the impact of that intervention or that strategy,” he said.

Franks noted it was important to look through the lens of Multi Tiered Systems of Support, looking at data and making decisions based on that information regularly.

“That’s a process that happens all year long, opposed to the MCA that is the assessment that happens at the end of the year,” she said. “That allows us to make decisions more fluidly to meet the needs of our students where they’re at.”

To that effect, the district has been using FastBridge, which was supported by the Minnesota Department of Education.

“We’ll screen all students in the fall, and then we will screen again in the winter, and we’ll look at growth,” Wagner said, adding that screeners would look at gaps and try to identify what supports a student may still need.

The district would then implement those supports and measure their impacts.

According to Franks, FastBridge measures reading and math skills, breaking each into subcategories. All students from kindergarten through eighth grade participate.

“The MCA is one point in time where our screeners are able to give us more frequent data that allows us to make decisions based on our student needs,”Franks said.

The district also performs screenings throughout the year.

Overall, Wagner admitted it was hard to look at those numbers.

“That is someone’s child, that’s someone’s grandchild, that’s someone’s sister [or] brother,” he said. “They matter and we need to ensure they trust in us to ensure they get a high-quality education in Albert Lea Schools.”

Franks saw this as an opportunity to think “more purposefully” about meeting student needs.

Wagner said as the district continued to partner with the community and families/caregivers, it was important to keep students in the center.

“This journey is about each one of those students, and we will do what we can to accelerate the learning and meet the needs of each student as a collaborative community,” he said.

Franks noted the district was committed to each student’s academic, emotional and social success.

According to a press release from the Minnesota Department of Education, statewide there was a 1% increase in math scores within the assessment, a 1% decrease in reading scores and a 2% decrease in science scores since the 2022 assessments. Scores still remained roughly 10% below pre-pandemic levels.

”These statewide assessment results reinforce what we and other states around the country already know — our students, families, school communities and education are continuing to recover from the pandemic and need our support,” said Willie Jett, commissioner  of education, in a press release. This data is important as one part of a broader set of measures that tell us how our students and families are doing and what we need to do in partnership with our school communities to provide support for students to not only recover, but also excel.”

 

In other districts:

• Alden-Conger: 42.8% met or exceeded math standards, 45.1% met or exceeded reading standards and 40.6% met or exceeded science standards.
• Glenville-Emmons: 28.4% met or exceeded math standards, 29.9% met or exceeded reading standards and 30.9% met or exceeded science standards.
• NRHEG: 47.2% met or exceeded math standards, 41.3% met or exceeded reading standards and 33.1% met or exceeded science standards.
• United South Central: 43.4% met or exceeded math standards, 47.8% met or exceeded reading standards and 32% met or exceeded science standards.